NATURAL wingers are often a luxury but, looking at the big game at Old Trafford on the same night as I was reminiscing, I thought it was a good advert for our Premiership.

There was plenty of attacking play and some fantastic wing play from people such as Ryan Giggs, Damien Duff and Arjen Robben.

My friend, Sir Alex Ferguson, was delighted, and rightly so, with the battling performance in the first leg at Stamford Bridge, which gave his team a platform to build on in the second leg.

But, watching him after Wednesday's 2-1 defeat, there was no anger at losing - more an air of resignation, or acceptance, about this season.

Mr Mourinho started so arrogantly that most of us were just waiting for him to take fall, but he has now in fact won most people over with the way he has handled situations, such as this week.

There was none of the jumping or the running up and down the line that he famously did in a previous encounter, but there is a supreme confidence in himself and the squad he has assembled.

Obviously, being able to spend more than £200m is a big advantage, but the most important thing is the selection of newcomers and the ability to blend it into a squad with a terrific team spirit, even though some of them, such as Joe Cole, Eidur Gudjohnsen and our own Wayne Bridge, are not guaranteed a regular game.

But the style of play from his team had even Sir Alex quietly admitting that Chelsea could well win everything in sight.

I don't think they will lose the three or four games necessary now for them to be overtaken in the league.

They are in the final of one cup and I am sure, having met people like John Terry and Frank Lampard, that they are aware that they could go down in history if they take every game now the same way they did this week.

So the next 12 weeks or so will be interesting.

As far as the winning goal is concerned, I felt sorry for Tim Howard.

The headlines called him everything for apparently watching the free kick from wide on the right wing float in, but I remember asking Peter Shilton which was the hardest free kick for a goalkeeper to defend and it was exactly that sort - taken out on the wing with the opposite foot, as Duff did, left-footed from the right wing.

The keeper usually has players run across the ball's line of flight and Sir Alex was right not to condemn him, saying it was the job of his defenders to attack the ball, just as the line of Chelsea forwards did.

Unfortunately for Tim Howard, that made him look flat-footed.

So let's have more one touch football and bring back the wingers with lots of crosses and shots. That's what the crowd love to see.

Unfortunately a lot of our managers, particularly locally, would say it's all right if our position in the league was safe, but relegation battles are not generally a pretty sight and usually it's our friends in the wingers' union who get left on the bench until the battle has been won.